This is the last in a series by Around the Rings analyzing the seven declared interested 2026 Olympic bidders announced by the IOC on April 3.
(ATR) A major hurdle is cleared as Graz organizers can officially begin work on Austria’s second bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The initial funding agreement for the bid corporation was adopted by the Graz municipal council on Thursday. Markus Pichler, the CEO of the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games, has been named as managing director for the Graz BidCo.
The Austrian Olympic Committee tells Around the Rings that an internal workshop, including all relevant stakeholders, is scheduled for April 23.
The gathering in the Graz Congress is "about defining the alignment" of the bid, according to Pichler. He said in a statement that questions like "What do winter games in Austria mean to us in detail?" or "What do we want to achieve in Austria?" need to be answered.
Among the 50 people invited are representatives of winter sports associations and potential venues as well as the Austrian NOC president Karl Stoss.
Following the workshop, an informal media briefing for regional reporters will be held to update them on where things stand.
An IOC bid delegation will make the first of several three-day visits on May 7 to lend expertise to the bid, as part of the "New Norm" bid reforms.
The IOC’s technical experts will analyze each project over the coming months. The IOC Executive Board will then review the findings and make a decision about which cities go to the candidature phase in October.
A feasibility study for the bid is expected to be completed in June.
The Austrian NOC has plenty of experience in recent years in bidding to host a Winter Olympics but little to show for it. Attempts by Graz in 2002, Klagenfurt in 2006 and Salzburg in 2010 and 2014 all came up short.
The latest disappointment came in October, when a failed referendum torpedoed an effort by Innsbruck to host the Winter Games for a third time. It is unclear at this point if Graz will face a similar vote.
The Austrian Communist Party has been working to gather enough signatures on a petition that would force a referendum on the bid. The party said it had collected more than 5,000 of the needed 10,000 signatures by late March and wanted to reach the target before the summer.
Like the Innsbruck bid, the Graz project wants to make use of existing venues throughout Austria and southern Germany, in line with the IOC’s Agenda 2020 guidelines. Before the Graz bid was presented to the IOC, it was expected that Schladming would be part of a joint bid. Schladming’s municipal government has already given its blessing.
Both cities are in the state of Styria. A poll released last month of Styrian residents over the age of 16 showed 46 percent supported a bid on some level while 33.1 percent opposed it. The remaining 20.9 percent were undecided.
Written and reported by Gerard Farek
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